Hardly worth a post. Just doesn't do much for me. Hard to get fired up about the game. Of course, I definitely don't want to lose to them. It's just sort of anti-climatic when we win.

Their coach is definitely not happy. Scowling on the sidelines. Mark Richt, class all the way, gracious in victory.

I will say this, however. If Georgia Tech ever gets a really good running back like the guy that used to play for Georgia Southern (Peterson?) and a dual threat quarterback, then look out. They don't need Tim Tebow or Cam Newton. Just someone big enough to take a hit and talented enough to throw reasonably accurate passes.

Then I'll get worried. As for now, I'll just enjoy Georgia's victory until this time next year.

Friday, November 25, 2011

They put in their scrubs against us and we still lost by 14. I appreciate the team making it look respectable, though. John Cannon made some nice plays.

Fox really does have to teach his players when to shoot the three. He might try instituting a rule that you can't shoot from behind the arc until you take it to the basket at least once, get a steal, or get a rebound.

As it stood, once again almost half of our shots were three-pointers. When we miss, they get long rebounds and go on the fast break and either convert or get fouled. They ran their offense and got shots right underneath the basket. We've got to do the same. Run the offense. At the very least, we should make their guys run through screens. They'll get tired as the possession continues and somebody will be open. We shot 26 threes and they shot 8. That to me was the story of the game.

I predicted a Georgia win. I guess I was too much of a homer to do otherwise. It was more wishful thinking than any kind of analysis, but I thought we might be able to play them tough. Even if I knew deep down that Georgia would only be so successful at their place, I had no idea we would look so bad on national t.v. again. Shot 32 percent from the floor, 26 percent from deep.

Still a homer, just a frustrated one. Let's bounce back and win the next one.

We are shooting terribly from the field, and half of our shots are three-pointers. If we're not shooting at least in the 30 percent range from behind the arc, we should run the offense and try to get closer to the basket.

We can't score 20 points in an entire half? Just frustrating.

Can still get it done in the second half. I'm not watching the game, so I don't know if Fox has already tried this, but if not, why not go to a four-guard line-up? If we aren't getting anything from the bigs, let's do what Missouri has done and go small.

I watched the UGA-Notre Dame game and I have to say that Georgia looked a whole lot better than the game against Cal.

It wasn't the fact that UGA won. It's always great to get the W, and at the end of the season our record of wins and losses is what counts. But the thing that impressed me the most was that Georgia competed. We hustled on defense, fought through screens, and rebounded the basketball.

For the most part, we ran the offense. I do not like the fact that we shoot so many three-pointers. If you live by the three, you die by the three, says the basketball cliche. We have to get some shots going toward the basket, have to feed the post, and have to get to the free throw line. When half of a team's shots are from behind the arc, the offensive players are probably not working hard enough.

But if we shoot from behind the arc as part of our offensive execution, then that's much better than just jacking it up without making the defense tired. Besides, we were actually hitting the threes at a pretty good clip.

UGA is 4 and 1 on the young season, which is a good result. Let's hope the team continues to play hard as we get ready for the SEC portion of the schedule.

Monday, November 21, 2011

We probably would have lost by 40 points if California hadn't liberally substituted in the second half. Even against Cal's bench-riders, UGA looked awful.

As it stood, we lost by 24 points on a neutral court on national t.v. They shot over 50 percent from the floor, over 50 percent from behind the arc and shot almost 80 percent from the line. Georgia shot 33 percent from the floor, did terribly from long-range and shot 57 percent from the free-throw line.

Cal didn't even have a dominant front-line. Their post players were by and large non-athletic. They were fundamentally sound, but there wasn't a big body in the midst. No high-flyers either, for that matter. This was a team against which we should have been able to battle to the finish.

I don't understand our recruitment philosophy. Other than Gerald Robinson, our guards don't seem to be able to drive the ball. And our post players do not look skilled with the ball at all. We really needed a dominant post for 2011 and we didn't get one. Here's hoping we get a surprise like Tony Parker for 2012, but things look really dim.

Have no explanation for why we start our offense so high up. It makes sense if you're creating space for Trey Thompkins or Travis Leslie, but if we don't have those kinds of guys, we need to adjust our execution. We're still hoisting up way too many three-pointers. Over a third of our shots tonight were from behind the arc, and when you're shooting only 20 percent from deep, you ought to run the offense.

As I indicated previously, we're going to struggle this year. I wanted to rationalize it and say that we just had a bad night, but I had to be honest with myself. I wouldn't mind it so much if I saw an apparent way to turn things around (Nick Marshall will help if we can get him on the court after football season is over, but he won't help us in the post). As far as I can tell, we'll probably struggle next year, too. Oh well.